Neil Lennon fully expects striker Cillian Sheridan to be looking to prove a point when he returns to Parkhead with St Johnstone today. The Irishman spent four years at Celtic as a youngster during which he had loan spells with Motherwell, Plymouth and the Perth club before he finally left to join Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia in 2010. Saints manager Derek McInnes snapped up the striker on another loan deal in the summer and he will lead the line on Sunday - with Lennon wary of what he can do.
He said: "Cillian is still young player but when he is on form he can be unplayable at times. He can be a real handful and I think he might want to come here and prove a point. We felt the time was right for him to move on and he wanted to move on himself. I don't know how things have worked out over there (Bulgaria) but he is back in Scotland and he has been on loan at St Johnstone before, and had a pretty successful spell there.''
While Celtic did not manage to score against Sion on Thursday in the first-leg of their Europa League play-off at Parkhead, they are firm favourites to continue their 100% record in the SPL. St Johnstone have only managed to pick up one point from their three games. However, Lennon knows they will have to get past a St Johnstone defence who will be every bit as resolute as that of the Swiss side who held out for a goalless draw. He said: "St Johnstone played very well here last year and it took us until the 90th minute to get the result we were looking for. They are pretty dogged at times and Derek has them well organised. They haven't made a great start to the season but again they will be difficult to break down.''
Captain Scott Brown, who is a doubt for today's game due to an ankle injury, insists the Hoops players have recovered from their Europa League disappointment. He said: "We were a wee bit down but at the end of the day we are still in it and we have another game to look forward to. We didn't have the best game on Thursday but we still managed to keep a clean sheet and keep us in the tie. There is another 90 minutes to prove ourselves and I'm sure we will do that. But we have a big game coming up on Sunday so we have to concentrate on that first.''